Books

Godse’s Children: Hindutva terror in black and white

The Milli Gazette

Published Online: Oct 17, 2011

Print Issue: 16-31 October 2011

Book:Godse’s Children - Hindutva terror in India

Author: Subhash Gatade

Publisher: Pharos Media, New Delhi

Year: 2011

Pages: 400

ISBN: 978-81-7221-052-0

Price: Rs 360

Dr Sumit S Paul

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality,” wrote T S Eliot. Subhash Gatade’s book “Godse’s Children” is one such disturbingly candid book that chronicles the nefarious and subversive activities of Hindu outfits, chiefly RSS, and the crimes these groups have been perpetrating against the Muslim and Christian populace for many years. Had the book been written by a Muslim, it’d have been dubbed as “a biased account of a prejudiced Muslim.” But the writer is a non-Muslim and his name suggests that he has roots in Maharashtra, the hotbed of Hindu terrorism. This makes the book all the more authentic. Well, readers may raise a point that terrorism has no religion. Calling “Hindu” or “Muslim” terrorism is pigeonholing a particular section and narrowing down all possibilities, but when terrorism has a hidden agenda like that of the RSS and its various ramifications, one has to specify it.

Those who morbidly believe in the “spirit of Hindutva” and look forward to having an “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India) where there’ll be all Hindus, terrorism certainly assumes the form of Hindutva terror.

The RSS, as the flag-bearer of Hindu nationalism, always believed in the superiority of the Aryan race, like Hitler and the Nazis. Racism is the common tie which binds them together. Hindus happened to be Aryans belonging to the national race whereas Muslims and Christians were foreigners because they followed religions which took birth in non-Aryan foreign lands.

The RSS divided religions professed in India into two categories: Indian and foreign. Interestingly, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism were declared to be of the Indian variety but were not accorded the status of independent religions. These were simply treated as part of Hinduism, mere tributaries or rivulets of the gigantic Hinduism.

Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906-1973), the most prominent ideologue of the RSS, who came to head the organisation after Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, naturally inherited deep love for fascism and nazism from his seniors, and stood for cleansing of the followers of religions which originated in foreign lands. He took it upon himself like Rudyard Kipling’s patronising “white man’s burden.” He idealised the Nazi cultural nationalism of Hitler, which was nothing else but ethnic cleansing of non-Aryans.

Gatade has stated but not so categorically that the jingoistic fervour along with the religious fanaticism of the Hindu Brahmins shaped up the pervert ideology of RSS. Sense of belonging to a religious group coupled with a pathological allegiance to one’s country may prove to be a lethal amalgam. It vindicates the Hindi proverb: Ek toh karela, us par neem chadha (leprosy, further deteriorated by consumption).

The late Samuel Huttington, who wrote the seminal essay “The Clash of civilizations” also wrote “Perils of pan-Hinduaisation.” Huttington wrote, “Pan-Islamisation may be an idea to a few, Pan-Hinduaisation’s an accepted reality to many (Hindus).” This is the fallacious belief of Hindus on which they want to erect an edifice of their “universal religion.”

Hindus may say that there’s no concept of conversion in their religion as Hinduism believes in “vertical” conversion, contrary to “horizontal” conversion of the Semitic faiths, viz. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but in reality, conversion has always been an implied objective of the hardcore Hindus. The followers of Jainism were forcibly reconverted to Hinduism in the 12-13th centuries. And many Hindu kings killed innocent Buddhist monks. The great indologist A L Basham called Hinduism “a faith with all flaws and follies, yet unnoticed.” When Hindus couldn’t bring Buddha back to the fold of Hinduism, which he relinquished because of the rampant obscurantism Hinduism was saddled with, they declared him (Siddharth, later Buddha as he got enlightened) the tenth reincarnation of Vishnu and bracketed him with mythical figures like Ram and Krishna. In this way, they succeeded in repudiating Buddhism as a separate faith but at the same time, they elevated Buddha to godhood, thus pacifying the followers of Buddhism! This is sheer knavery and unmitigated cunningness.

Here I won’t be wide of the mark to state that Golwalkar wrote a small booklet trying to prove that Mahavir never existed and he was actually Buddha. Right from 2600 years back, Hindu Brahmins have been trying to prove that Mahavir never existed, though Buddha did exist. By rejecting Mahavir’s existence, they also rejected Jainism right from its roots!

Gatade has shown the real face of “liberal” Hinduism and denuded it in a manner, hither-to condoned by even the most intrepid writers. By showing the “organised militancy” of Hinduism through RSS and its offshoots, Gatade has excoriated this “divine order” (as Hinduism is called by the “Sanatan” Hindus).

The best thing about the book is that the writer has not resorted to outlandish surmises and a wild goose chase. He’s called a spade a spade, nay a shovel. The authentic references and proofs with their valid sources lend credibility to this shocking book. There’re many blood-curdling accounts of Hindus’ cruelty. One must read pages 17-18, cited in Khushwant Singh’s weekly column inThe Hindustan Times, May 12, 2001: “While describing an incident in which he (Krishna Gopal Rastogi, an RSS whole-timer) personally led a mob of armed Hindus against Muslims in Kaliar town situated between Roorkee and Haridwar, he went on to state without any remorse how he didn’t spare even a young Muslim girl. According to Rastogi’s heart-chilling version: ‘It was an old locality inhabited by the Muslims. They, armed with daggers, spears, guns were fully prepared to meet any situation. When I learnt of their intentions to attack some Hindu areas, I organised 250 people including some known gangsters and raided Kaliar. Then a strange thing happened. While we’d been killing men in one of the houses, we spotted a very beautiful young girl. The assailants led by me were instantly enamoured. They even started fighting among themselves to take possession of the girl. I faced an extremely awkward situation and didn’t know what to do. I tried my best to get the assailants to focus on real issues. I abused and threatened them but they wouldn’t listen to me. And suddenly the solution came. The girl was after all causing the trouble and had to be eliminated. I took my gun and shot her. She died. My associates were shocked and returned to the work. Though it was against our principle to assault a woman, but it was done in an emergency and I still regret it.’”

The venom spewed by Golwalkar and Savarkar and executed to its concrete manifestation by the likes of Godse and Apte is still very much alive and kicking. The first act of Hindutva terror started with the assassination of M K Gandhi by Godse with a tacit consent of a large section of the Maharashtrian Brahmin lobby and RSS. One more reason of the Brahmins being opposed to Gandhi was the latter being a non-Brahmin, yet so great in stature. Intoxicated by a false notion of ethnic superiority and Manusmriti as its Magna Carta and alpha and omega, anyone not being a Brahmin is against the monomaniac ideology of RSS, governed by the Brahmins.

It’s germane to quote a letter written by V D Savarkar to one Gadgil of Satara (Maharashtra) in 1939, which served as a backdrop to Gandhi’s assassination. The undated letter’s tone’s rabidly venomous: “This non-Brahmin old man’s servile policy to pacify Muslims is a potential threat to Brahmin Hindus’ aspirations of having a seamless Hindu society with the absence of any other faith, especially Islam. Gandhiji must be taught a harsh lesson for giving unnecessary importance to mlechha....” Mlechha is the derogatory word used by the Hindus for the Muslims. Justice Khosla adduced this letter in the Lal Qila trial of Gandhi assassination and found it to be an instigator to the Hindu fanatics like Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Parchure, Kistayya, among others. All these names mentioned here were implicated in Gandhiji’s assassination.

RSS’s dubious role in Gandhiji’s elimination is now an open secret. Even the first CJI of India, Justice H Kania, suggested to dissolve and disband this organization on the ground of its sanguinary policies and views. He termed RSS as “a pack of larrikins.” That killing spirit still persists.

Gatade has debunked the myth of Islamic terrorism that has stayed with the Muslims of India like a dead albatross right from the beginning. Granted, Muslims have also indulged in bomb-explosions and riots by killing Hindus, but why shouldn’t one retaliate? There’s a Persian saying: Tang aamad ba jang aamad (one hits back when things come to a pretty pass).

Gatade has detonated many myths about Islamic terrorism and categorically held Hindu outfits for the mischief. No wonder, if the powerful Hindu lobby in collusion with the government gets the book proscribed. But to quote Tariq Bin Ziyad, “Burn the book (Qur’an). Tear it. Destroy it. Desecrate it. Yet, its perennial message will never be expunged from the hearts and minds of the believers.” The same can be said about this book, which will continue to stir the consciousness of the readers, irrespective of whether or not it’s removed from the stands. After all, truth can never be suppressed, though it’s forever on the scaffold.

This article appeared in The Milli Gazette print issue of 16-31 October 2011 on page no. 27

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